Some Great Music from the Buddhist-Surfer-Skateboarder-Psychadelic-Folk Legend, Mt. Egypt…

…aka Travis Graves, one of my favorite people.

*Update: After selling out of the first issue, a reissue of Mt. Egypt’s latest album is now available in limited numbers on Secret Seven Records, SF’s Web site. Check it out.

Travis Graves, of the band Mt. Egypt, is one of the most sincere, kindest, most loving, funniest, handsomest, and craziest people I’ve ever met. His music reflects such genuineness and heartbreaking complexity. If I ever need to have my heartstrings tugged at a little, this is what I listen to.

Mt. Egypt has opened for such impressive acts as Cat Power, The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, Will Oldham, and even Willie Nelson. He’s a Buddhist in disguise (his mother is a Buddhist–he must have inherited it through osmosis) as some of his lyrics suggest: “All I wanna do is be here,” “The wind she is so sweet she just blows through the trees, the sun he don’t think at all,” “Things all alright, it’s just thought that gets in the way.”

To top it off, Travis is also a great surfer and an incredible skateboarder, lauded by the best for his gracefulness and sweet style.

My favorite of his songs is Zuma Beach. If you can, buy his album Perspectives on iTunes. It’s well worth it. His second album Battening the Hatches is also classic.

Travis’s latest album, Mt. Egypt III, is available for purchase in limited numbers. Buy one before the reissue sells out: Secret Seven Records, SF Web site.

Find Mt. Egypt on Facebook here.

A music video by photographer/filmmaker Mike Piscitelli for Mt. Egypt’s St. Augustine Road:

The Now Penguin:

Can You Feel the Wind?:

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